事业 · 创业者自述
塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯：自助论·摘录 160
塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯《自助论》· Self-Help · 领导
The father of Richard Foley, the founder of the family, was a small yeoman living in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge in the time of Charles I. That place was then the centre of the iron manufacture of the midland districts, and Richard was brought up to work at one of the branches of the trade—that of nail-making. He was thus a daily observer of the great labour and loss of time caused by the clumsy process then adopted for dividing the rods of iron in the manufacture of nails. It appeared that the Stourbridge nailers were gradually losing their trade in consequence of the importation of nails from Sweden, by which they were undersold in the market. It became known that the Swedes were enabled to make their nails so much cheaper, by the use of splitting mills and machinery, which had completely superseded the laborious process of preparing the rods for nail-making then practised in England.
出处：
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/935
定位：Excerpt 160 · 核对日期：2026-10-19 · 核验：短摘录
白话
理查德·福利是福利家族的奠基人，他父亲是查理一世时期斯托布里奇附近的小自耕农。那里是中部铁器制造中心，理查德从小做钉子，天天看着当时分铁条的老办法又费工又费时。后来瑞典钉子大量进口，价格更低，斯托布里奇的钉匠渐渐丢了生意。大家慢慢知道，瑞典人用了切割机和机械，把英国这边费力的备料工序整个取代了，所以能做得更便宜。这件事说明：竞争失利往往不是人不勤快，而是工具和工序落后；要翻身，先得看清别人到底赢在哪里。
上下文
斯迈尔斯《自助》中讲述福利家族兴起背景，17世纪英国铁钉业与瑞典竞争。
今日一问
你所在的行业，有没有一处“费工又费时”的环节正被别人用新办法取代？
公版作品；原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg，仅摘录段落并附全书链接。
你的邮箱
只用于发送原典。不发广告，不卖名单。
本文本为公版；底本与原文链接见上。 版权